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Tuesday, August 08, 2006

Anglesey Holiday - Day 8 - Mon 31st July

Off to Llandudno for the day. (link & link)We figured we'd be able to fill the day here, but in the end we had so much fun that we're going back tomorrow.

Llandudno is a really surprising town. I must admit I was expecting some horrendously tacky, overly commercial Blackpool of Wales sort of town, but in actual fact Llandudno is more of the typical Victorian seaside resort with a long pier, promenade, stone and sand beach and a sweeping seafront packed with a wall of stunning 4 storey buildings.

We started off walking along the pier in the rain and then started to wander the sea front, stopping off for a traditional Punch & Judy show (wiki).Half an hour later when Mr Punch was hitting and maiming his way through the extensive cast of characters we're starting to wonder when it's actually going to end.Isn't Punch & Judy meant to be fairly short?But it seems that traditional Punch & Judy shows go on and on and on. But Molly loved it and sat rapt for the entire time. Mommy and Daddy took it in shifts.

I've always liked the idea of Mr Punch. Murdering, wife-beating, child-abusing, serial killer with no respect for police, justice or even old nick himself. And of course, small children think this is all bloody hilarious. When you put it like that you wonder why the PC brigade haven't got onto Mr Punch's case yet.

After the sedateness of the Punch & Judy show Molly spotted the advert for the Jet Rides speed boat. Now as bad as Louise is with vertigo, she's worse with anything like rollercoasters or thrill rides, so it's always me who ends up sharing these moments with our adrenalin junkie daughter.

Absolutely fantastic.Once it got out of the confines of the bay the driver opened the throttle up and the boat just shot away, bouncing over the waves like a mad thing. I looked across at Molly at this point and she's just smiling and laughing maniacally. By the end of the trip she's still laughing and starts asking if she can go back on straight away.

Next up we trekked up the hill to the Great Oromo Tramway. This is a spectacular piece of Victorian engineering. A road and track born cable tram pulling up to the Great Orme summit at 679ft. It pulls halfway up to the summit and then stops at the Halfway station where all the passengers transfer to another tram and journey up to the summit.

Once up at the summit the views are wonderful, but all Molly could see was the playground. Then we rounded a corner and are presented with the strangest sight imaginable at this height with the wind whipping around us nearly blowing us over. At the summit of The Great Orme sits a crazy golf course. And of course, within the hour, we're playing it. Wonder how you score a hole when the ball has blown away?

One strange thing I did notice was the couple in front of us on the golf course had a small son playing as well. They ended up getting on the tram to go back down with us and the dad was still holding his son's golf club. Now does this mean he'd stolen it or even more weird, had he brought his son's very own putter up a bloody mountain just for a game of crazy golf? Bizarre.